July 12, 1890. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
711 
worthy of mention, but space will not admit at this 
time. The kitchen-garden is well cropped with vege‘ 
tables, which looked exceedingly well at the time of my 
visit; clearly showing that Mr. McIntyre has the 
management of the entire establishment thoroughly 
well in hand.— J. McNab. 
-►>*««- 
THE ORIGIN OP THE CULTI¬ 
VATED STRAWBERRY. 
By Shirley Hibbeed. 
(Concluded from p. 69 ij. 
An important contribution to the history of this fruit 
will be found in the ninth volume of Le Jardm Fruitier 
du Museum, of Mr. J. Decaisne, published 1862 to 
1875. The material for the article “Le Fraisier’’in 
this work was in great part supplied by Madame Elisa 
de Yilmorin, but the classic work on the subject, by 
M. Duchesne, published 1867, has been relied on 
chiefly for matters lying out of the region of Madame 
Vilmorin’s enquiries and observations. According to 
this authority there are seven species of Strawberry. 
The Wood Strawberry, Fragaria vesca, is described as 
freely scattered over Europe, Asia, and America. It is 
unknown in Africa, but otherwise is a free citizen of 
the world. The Alpine Strawberry, F. alpina, is 
considered by Decaisne a variety of the Wood Straw¬ 
berry. The variety known as Monophylla, the one¬ 
leaved Strawberry, of which there is an example on the 
table, was raised by M. Duchesne in 1761 from the 
Wood Strawberry. It is of no special interest, as the 
fruit does not differ from that of the wild plant. In 
the year 1887 Messrs. Lovell, of Driflield, sent me 
plants of the popular Sir Joseph Paxton that had 
become one-leaved, but in the year following these 
plants produced leaves three-divide 1,'according to the 
proper pattern. 
The Hautbois, F. elatior, belongs to Central Europe. 
It is well known to be partially dioeciou=, a fact that 
needs to be recognised by the cultivator ; and one lull 
of interest as a feature in the biology of the genus 
Fragaria. Miller’s F. murieata, with green fruit the 
size of a plum, is a variety of the Hautbois. 
The green Pine, F. collini, described as a native of 
Germany, differs from others in some trivial peculi¬ 
arities of the calyx. It is a variety of the Hautbois, 
and has no proper claim to specific distinction. 
Hagenbach’s, F. Hagenbachiana, is probably the 
produce of a cross between F. vesca and F. collina—in 
other words, a hybrid of the Wood and Hautbois 
Strawberries. 
The scarlet or Virginian, F. Virginiana, is described 
by Decaisne as introduced to Europe in the first half of 
the eighteenth century, but we have the testimony of 
Parkinson that it was in the country in the first half 
of the seventeenth century, so that Decaisne may be 
considered in error to the extent of a century in this 
matter. F. canadensis is the Canadian form of this 
same scarlet Strawberry. 
The Chili, F. Chiloensis, is reported by Decaisne as 
introduced to France in 1712, and he describes it as 
producing grand foliage and fruits that are sometimes 
as large as pullets’ eggs. He adds that it often requires 
to be fertilised by other varieties of its own species. 
The first mention of the South American Strawberry is 
by M. Frezier, who, in 1716, found it at the foot of the 
Cordillera Mountains, near Quito, and carried it home 
to Marseilles. The Spaniards reported that they 
obtained it from Mexico, and through them it may 
have reached Paris at a date anterior to its discovery by 
M. Frezier, which would, perhaps, justify M. Decaisne’s 
date—1712. Mr. E. P. Roe, in his admirable book on 
Success with Small Fruits, says:—“From Mr. W. 
Collett Sandars, an English antiquary, I learn that 
seven plants were shipped from Chili, and were kept 
alive, during the voyage, by water which M. Frezier 
saved from his allowance, much limited owing to a 
shortness of supply. He gave two of his plants to M. 
de Jussien, who cultivated them in the Royal Gardens.” 
In 1727 the Chili Strawberry was introduced to England 
by Miller, as cited above. He describes it as a bad 
bearer. Duchesne says later importations from America 
to England met with better success, for early in the 
present century new varieties of F. Chiloensis, as well 
as of F. Virginiana, became quite common, both in this 
country and on the Continent. 
Decaisne adds, that the varieties of the Chili Straw¬ 
berry make amends for the smallness of their number 
by their beauty and excellence. The Pine, or great- 
flowered Strawberry, F. grandiflora, he declares to be 
of unknown origin, but incontestably a garden hybrid. 
Gray’s, F. Grayana, and the Californian F. lucida, 
are forms of F. Virginiana. The last-named has some 
distinctive features of leafage, and is very decidedly 
dioecious, and commonly sterile. 
Decaisne’s seven species shrink to four when in¬ 
vestigated, but we must not forget the diversity of 
opinion that prevails as to the limitations of species, 
and the French botanists usually lean on slender 
characters to make many species. 
In the year 1818, when, on August 4th, Mr. Thomas 
Andrew Knight, president of the Horticultural Society 
of London, presented his memorable paper on “The 
Variations of the Scarlet Strawberry,” the three 
reputed species of American Strawberries were fully 
established as garden plants, but there was nothing 
like a collection of varieties in existence. It is 
particularly interesting to observe that he sets out by 
declaring his belief that all the American Strawberries 
are “varieties only of one species; for all may be 
made to breed together indiscriminately, and I have 
found that similar varieties may be obtained from the 
seeds of any of them ; and upon the same evidence I 
consider the wild Strawberry of Canada, the Bith 
Scarlet, and the black, and, in short, all our large 
Strawberries, with the exception of the Hautboy, to be 
varieties of the same plant.” In evidence of his 
command of facts as the basis of criticism, he reports 
that he had raised 400 new varieties—“ some very bad, 
but the greater part tolerably good, and a few, I think, 
excellent.” He describes only eighteen varieties, in 
respect of which there is not much to be said. But 
mention should be made of Ho. 2, produced from a 
seed of the White Chili and pollen of the black 
Strawberry, one of the berries of which weighed 274 
grains. The colour of the fruit was scarlet, the form 
conic, and not at all flattened or deformed. 
That our garden Strawberries, after much crossing 
and selecting, still represent the two American species 
need not to be enforced, for they carry the evidence in 
their characters. But there are points of importance 
in those characters that have obtained less than their 
due share of attention. One of these is the tendency 
to a dioecious habit of flowering. A perfect flower of a 
Strawberry contains both stamens and stigmas after 
the proper fashion of a rosaceous plant. But it happens 
that under certain circumstances flowers containing 
only one set of organs are produced ; those that have 
stamens in sufficiency to be hermaphrodite being 
termed staminate, and those from which the stamens 
are absent pistillate. This part of the subject has 
obtained more attention in America than with us, but 
English gardeners have always had to recognise the 
fact in the cultivation of the Hautbois. This exhibits 
the dimeious tendency in so striking a manner that 
unless a plantation is closely watched it in time 
becomes barren, because the male plants outrun the 
females, and take their place by shee; force of superior 
vigour. But it is a mistake to suppose that the 
staminate plants are absolutely necessary when the 
desire of the grower is to obtain Strawberries as fruits, 
without any regard to the vitality of the seeds that 
those fruits may carry. The prevailing indifference to 
this part of the subject is scarcely pardonable when the 
business in hand is the raising of new varieties ; but 
for all the ordinary purposes of the cultivator it is 
certainly not of great consequence, because the varieties 
grown in this country and on the continent of Europe 
are mostly pistillate ; but as they are all capable of 
varying in their sexual capacities, the cultivator cannot 
with impunity ignore the facts of nature. Our grand 
British Queen is often said to be fastidious in its require¬ 
ments as to soil and climate, but in all probability it 
occasionally proves less fruitful than its wont through 
becoming staminate, for plants can change their sex to 
suit their circumstances, as I have proved in the case of 
the Holly, and some other garden plants. The frequency 
of the staminate form, as the case is represented by 
American culturists, is doubtless a consequence cf 
certain peculiarities of the American climate, for their 
staminate kinds appear to become pistillate when 
removed, and the garden varieties that still rank nearest 
to F. Virginiana are with us as decidedly pistillate as 
any. Our Wood Strawberry is pretty constant in its 
floral characters, having five petals and four stamens 
to each. But the American Strawberry in its original 
form often has five or six stamens to each petal; and 
occasionally there are seven petals and forty to forty- 
two stamens. On the other hand, the pistils of 
these staminate flowers are often incomplete, or but 
paitially developed, and there is a deficiency of fruit 
accordingly. The Chili species is often deficient of 
pollen, and, therefore, is advantageously grown with 
other varieties. Probably the best representative of the 
Virginian Strawberry now in our gardens is the 
Crescent Seedling, an early, smallish, scarlet, sprightly- 
flavoured fruit, that appears likely to become popular 
for the first supply. I have examined many flowers 
of this variety, and have seen no indications of the 
predominance of either sex ; in other words they appear 
to be normally hermaphrodite. 
In the year 1861 I made an examination of the 
flowers in a collection of Strawberries that were fruited 
under glass ; and 100 blooms each on ten different 
varieties, making 1,000 in all, wore marked. The varie¬ 
ties were Scarlet Nonpareil, Black Prince, Carolina 
Superba, Oscar, Sir Harry, Empress Eugenie, Keen’s 
Seedling, Belle de Paris, Eleanor, and Sir Charles 
Napier. From the 1,000 marked flowers, 887 berries 
were gathered. Those that failed appeared to begin 
life with equal conditions with the rest, but were 
impaired by insects, damp or shrivelling ; in fact, they 
failed through what may be termed accidental causes, 
and not through any want of pollen to effect fertilisa¬ 
tion, or any absence of stigmas to receive it. This 
observation was reported by me in The Gardeners' 
Magazine for August 16th, 1861. But although I do 
not urge the cultivator to watch narrowly for stami- 
nates and pistillates, I am certain that there are times 
when the subject should have more attention than it 
obtains ; and I have noticed, and possibly you have 
also, a hot dry season is one of those times when certain 
shy bearers appear to be more fruitful, if grown in 
close association with other sorts, as though pollen 
were sometimes deficient. But while we discuss the 
difference between European and American Strawberries 
in respect of this question of stamens and pistils, it will be 
properto keep inmindthattheStrawberriesof Europe are 
mostly descended from the Chilian and Virginian stocks ; 
while those of the United States are the progeny of the 
Virginian stock almost exclusively. There is no 
shadow of whim or taste in the matter, for the South 
American race suit the European climates, and the 
North American race suit the North American climates ; 
for in those States in which Strawberries are in the 
greatest demand, the winLrs are too cold and the 
summers too hot for the jr >geny of Fragaria Chiloensis. 
Thus the question of staminates and pistillates is 
simplified, lor the southern plants are more distinctly 
hermaphrodite than the northern ; and this fact 
accounts for our indifference to the subject of sex in this 
fruit. 
In view of these considerations, it is remarkable that 
Decaisne, in a list of thirty-one varieties, the parentage 
of which he attributes to F. Virginiana, should include 
such evident hybrids as Admiral Dundas, British 
Queen, Eleanor, Eliza, Elton Pine, Goliath, Grosse 
Sucree, Jucunda, Keen’s Seedling, Lucas, Marguerite, 
Oscar, Sir C. Napier, Sir Harry, and Wonderful. As 
“issues” of F. Chiloensis, he names only Barnes’s 
Large White and Chili Orange, both late varieties, 
fertile, and of good quality. He might now, perhaps, 
be enabled to recognise in the vigorous-habited Waterloo 
the influence of the South American Strawberry ; but 
it must be confessed that in garden varieties the species 
have been so much mixed, that to determine in any 
ase which of the parents predominates is well-nigh, 
impossible. That our American friends are chiefly in¬ 
debted to their own wild Strawberry for the varieties 
they prize is admitted by all the authorities, from 
Downing to Roe, and the fact differentiates F. Vir¬ 
giniana from F. Vesca, the first being capable of 
endless variation, and the second being apparently as 
immovable as the Britisher himself, and as incapable of 
quitting the groove scooped in the world for it by 
nature. 
But our Wood Strawberry takes at least three forms, 
which may be designated the Vesca, Alpina, and Elatior 
forms. In like manner, the American Scarlet takes a 
Virginiana, an Illinrensis, and a Canadensis form ; while 
the South American appears in a Chiloensis, a Grandi¬ 
flora, and a Carolina form. These several sub-species, 
as they may be termed, may be regarded as connecting 
links that establish family relationships between the 
several species, and in the first instance reduce the 
reputed six species to an actual three, and the actual 
three to a possible one. Should we be enabled to trace 
the origin of the Strawberry so far back as to unite the' 
species, we might go a step farther, and entertain the 
notion that, to use the terms of the evolutionists, the 
plant originally produced dry carpels in the way of a 
Potentilla, but adopted the ingenious device of adorning 
the carpels with a sweet and fragrant pulp to bribe the 
birds to disseminate the seeds. But you did not invite 
me to indulge in speculations, and I will therefore be 
content in having placed before you a few matters of 
fact that may prove serviceable in aid of practical work, 
for a knowledge of how a thing was made may serve as 
a guide to the process of improving it. 
